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Mapping  the  early  modern  city

Helen  Hills

Urban  History  /  Volume  23  /  Issue  02  /  August  1996,  pp  145  -­  170DOI:  10.1017/S0963926800011901,  Published  online:  09  February  2009

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Helen  Hills  (1996).  Mapping  the  early  modern  city.  Urban  History,  23,  pp145-­170  doi:10.1017/S0963926800011901

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Urban History, vol 23, pt.2 (August 1996). Copyright © Cambridge University Press

Mapping the early modern cityHELEN H I L L S 1

The construction of a physical space is certainly the site of a 'battle'; a properurban analysis demonstrates this clearly. That such a battle is not totalizing, that itleaves borders, remains, residues, is also an indisputable fact.

Manfredo Tafuri, The Sphere & the Labyrinth (London, 1990), 8.

In 1686 Paolo Amato, Architect to the Senate of Palermo, designedfabulous decorations to celebrate the festival of St Rosalia, principalpatron saint of Palermo.2 A procession, including two triumphal carsdesigned by Paolo Amato, made its way through the city, was treateden route to a firework display from a spectacular machine by the sameartist, and culminated in the cathedral. There the entire nave wastransformed with elaborate decorations, or apparati, but at the east endstood the most unusual theatrical apparato of all (Figure 1). The interestof this apparato lies in the fact that it is both a map of the city and theclimax to a procession through that city. This extremely unusual use ofa map raises important issues both about the development of mapping

I should like to thank the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill which facilitatedthe research for this paper with a Junior Faculty Development Award in 1994. Earlierversions of this paper were given at the College Arts Association meeting in San Antonio,Texas and at Essex University; I am grateful to David Friedman and Valerie Fraser fortheir kind invitations and to all those who asked questions and made commentsafterwards. In addition, I would like to thank Francesco Benigno for his kind help;colleagues at Chapel Hill, in particular Frances Huemer and Tom Tweed for theirsuggestions; and Mike Savage for his generous comments throughout. The criticisms ofRichard Rodger and of an anonymous reader for Urban History were also very helpful.For the role of the Architect of the Senate, see F. Meli, 'Degli Architetti del Senato diPalermo nei secoli XVII e XVIH', Archivio Storico per la Sicilia, V (1939), 305ff. For PaoloAmato, see P. Amato, La Nuova Pratica di Prospettiva (Palermo, 1714); A. Mongitore,Memorie dei Pittori, Scultori, Architetti, Artefici in Cera Siciliani, ed. E. Natoli (Palermo,1977), 25 and 120; G. Gangi, U Barocco nella Sicilia Occidentale (Rome, n.d.), 27-8;D. Garstang, Giacomo Serpotta and the Stuccatori of Palermo (London, 1984), 53-7. The onlymonograph on the subject is lively, but lacking in rigour: M.C. Ruggieri Tricoli, PaoloAmato: La Corona e il Serpente (Palermo, 1986).

146 Urban History

Figure 1: Paolo Amato, apparato for the main altar of PalermoCathedral,/estino of St Rosalia, 1686. From M. Del Giudice, PalermoMagnifico (Palermo, 1686)

in the early modern period and about the analysis of mapping ingeneral.3

This paper focuses on ways of 'mapping' the city of Palermo, bothliterally and figuratively, by examining the imagery of that city used inthe festino of 1686, with special attention to the map used at the mainaltar. The analysis of the apparato in its dual function sheds light on therelationship between map and city, the ephemeral and the permanent,politics and festivals in early modern Europe. The article also demon-strates that it is essential to seek to understand maps in the circumstances

3 I know of no examples outside Palermo of a map being used in a festival.

Mapping the early modern city 147in which they were used, and that it is insufficient to analyse maps asdiscrete, decontexrualized 'texts'.

Maps, cities and powerThe most traditional and most persistent tendency amongst historiansand art historians has been to view maps as 'reflections' of the landscapesthey depict. The result of this approach is to view cartographic changes asmoving hand-in-hand with alterations to the urban fabric. This is particu-larly true of studies of the baroque period when cities throughout Europewere being redefined physically and in representation. This 'realist'tendency is convincing because of the dramatic character of seventeenth-century urban interventions, unprecedented in scale and scope, as capitalcities were shaped, transformed and moulded by absolutist monarchsand ambitious aristocrats in a desperate struggle to decide the future ofthe power-centres of Europe.4 The spectacular nature of these urbaninterventions has rightly attracted considerable scholarly attention; but ithas also aggravated a tendency amongst scholars to give primacy to thebuilt environment and to assume that maps simply reflect the moresignificant changes made in the real city fabric. The classic example of thisapproach is Sigfried Giedion's discussion of urbanism in baroque Rome.Although Giedion acknowledges that the fresco map of the city of Romewhich Pope Sixtus V commissioned in 1589 for the Vatican Library iscarefully constructed to draw attention to Sixtus V's own interventionsand to exaggerate the straight streets and obelisks for which he wasresponsible, nevertheless Giedion does not shrink from using sixteenth-century printed maps as supposedly straightforward illustrations of someof those same interventions. Even in a study as careful and imaginativeas Hilary Ballon's of Paris under Henri PV, seventeenth-century maps arefrequently treated as objective representations of urban changes.6

In recent years, there has been a reaction against such assumptions.New research has opened up cartography to historical enquiry, demon-4 There is now a very considerable literature investigating the nature of urban

interventions at all levels from macro to micro in seventeenth<entury dries. RichardKrautheimer was a pioneer in this field and his brilliant example has been followed by ageneration of able urban and architectural historians. See, in particular, R. Krautheimer,The Rome of Alexander VII1655-1667 (Princeton, 1985); M. Pollak, Turin, 1564-1680(Chicago and London, 1991); H. Ballon, The Paris of Henri IV: Architecture and Urbanism(New York, 1991). An outstanding example of a dose investigation of urban rivalries at alocal level is J. Connors, 'Alliance and enmity in Roman baroque urbanism', RbmischesJahrbuch der Bibliotheca Hertziana, XXV (1989), 207-94; John Pinto provides a modelanalysis of one specific urban area over many centuries in J. Pinto, The Trevi Fountain(New Haven and London, 1986).

5 S. Giedion, Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition (Cambridge, 1967),82-7.

6 Ballon, Paris of Henri IV. Similarly, in her riveting study of Turin, Martha Pollak is muchquicker to treat as propagandistic engraved images of Torinese streets than the manymaps of that same dty. Pollak, Turin, 1564-1680.

148 Urban History

strating how maps and plans, rather than being objective representa-tions of real spaces, are as carefully considered, constructed and asproblematic as any other visual representation. Geographers led theway in demonstrating that maps, like other forms of representation,draw on cultural codes and are enmeshed in power relationships.7 Someart historians followed enthusiastically; but there has been a markedcaution amongst scholars to engage with maps as instruments innegotiating power relationships. There remains a tendency amongst arthistorians, for example, to concentrate either on maps represented inpaintings or on the ornamentation and typographic traditions of mapsthemselves.8

Furthermore, it is possible to detect several different nuances in thecritique of objectivist mapping. One line, championed by Denis Wood, forexample, has been to develop a semiological approach to maps, whichtreats them as abstracted texts to be 'deciphered' by the same sorts oftechniques which writers like Barthes deployed for the study of adver-tising and other visual media. The result is to emphasize the distancebetween the map and the contexts in which it is used. The other approach,which I develop here, is to pay more attention to the specific social andpolitical contexts in which maps are embedded to illuminate the way thatmaps are saturated by power relations.

This perspective is evident in the work of some recent scholars, whohave chosen to analyse seventeenth-century maps to illuminate thepolitical purposes these maps served for their patrons. Stefano Borsi'sexamination of Giovanni Maggi's famous map of Rome of 1625, forinstance, has demonstrated the degree to which such a document is anextremely careful, almost cunning image of a city which relies ondeliberate exaggerations, distortions and omissions, in spite of its scrupu-lously objective appearance.9 The weakness of such a study is that thebroader picture is lost, as the scholar focuses exclusively on the map itself.

It is therefore important to emphasize the significance of social contextsmore deeply and, in particular, more discussion is needed of how citieswere used in relation to cartography. Richard Krautheimer's work is an7 See especially D. Wood, The Power of Maps (New York, 1992); M. Blakemore and J.B.

Harley, 'Concepts in the history of cartography: a review and perspective', Cartographica,17,4 (Winter 1980); J. Pinto, 'Origins and development of the ichnographic city plan',Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (1976), 35-50; J. Schulz, 'Jacopo de' Barberi'sview of Venice: map making, city views, and moralized geography before the year 1500',Art Bulletin, 60 (1978), 425-74.

8 For maps represented in paintings, see S. Alpers, The Art of Describing: Dutch Art in theSeventeenth Century (Harmondsworth, 1983), 119-68 and J. Welu, "Vermeer: hiscartographic sources', Art Bulletin, 57 (1975), 529-47. For the conservative formalapproach to the study of maps, see for example, U. Ehrensvard, 'Color in cartography: ahistorical survey', in D. Woodward (ed.), Art and Cartography: Six Historical Essays(Chicago and London, 1987), 123-47; J.A. Welu, "The sources and development ofcartographic ornamentation in the Netherlands', in ibid., 147-73; D. Woodward, "Themanuscript, engraved, and typographic traditions of map lettering', in ibid., 174-212.

9 S. Borsi, Roma di Urbano VIII: La Pinta di Giovanni Maggi, 1625 (Rome, 1990).

Mapping the early modern city 149example which might be built on. In his study of Alexandrine Rome, hediscusses the relationship between urban teatri, ceremonial routes andtourism in the Eternal City; and shows that important urban interven-tions were made along the route travelled by powerful visitors on theirofficial entry into Rome. For Krautheimer, the urban interventions of thisperiod were aimed at the 'new type of tourist'. This new sort of visitor,no longer a pious pilgrim, was 'a tourist come to see the sights: a younggentleman on the Grand Tour to get acquainted with the world'.Krautheimer goes further and links these urban interventions to a spateof new maps. During Alexander VII's pontificate, a new type of engravedview of Rome and its monuments came on to the market: vedute ofmodern Rome, showing new buildings, streets and squares. Krautheimerargues that the market for these vedute was provided by the new type oftourist.10 Indeed, Krautheimer's view of the increasing secularization ofseventeenth-century Rome and of the diminishing influence of thePapacy occasionally prompts him to misread the new maps themselves.For example, in his analysis of the dedication group of G.B. Falda's SmallMap of 1667, Krautheimer mistakes the keys of St Peter for banisters anda water gauge.11 If read correctly, the dedication directly links thePapacy, the Catholic faith and architecture; and perhaps represents lessan acknowledgement of the Papacy's post-Westphalian collapse, than avigorous reassertion of its powers - undertaken through architectureitself. However, even if Krautheimer overemphasized the decline of theseventeenth-century Catholic Church and Papacy, his arguments remainsuggestive. Clearly, new maps are not an automatic result of changes tothe urban fabric; other catalysts - in this case, a new market - may beresponsible.

Krautheimer's work remained focused on portable engravings andtwo-dimensional, conventional maps. There has been even less considera-tion of unconventional maps, such as those figured in festival apparati.This is because scholars have tended to trace the development of mapsteleologically, driven by the modern notion of mapping as chartingphysical spaces in two-dimensional, abstracted texts. This paper investi-gates a map specifically designed for a social, ceremonial occasion, a formof mapping which has no contemporary correspondent, a form whichrepresents a cul-de-sac in cartographical development. This is the festivalapparato of early modern Palermo. This is a map, sponsored by a sectionof the ruling elite, which attempts to chart and to secure particularreligious and political convictions in the city. As shown below, preciselybecause the map was designed for a ceremonial occasion, it needs to beread in relation to the other ceremonial machines and decorations ondisplay.12 Thus the essay touches on relationships between festival ritual10 Krautheimer, Rome of Alexander VII, 142-4.11 Ibid., 142 and 146-7.12 The aim here is to shed light on the main apparato, which so strikingly incorporates the

150 Urban History

as performed in the public, open spaces of Palermo; ideas of the city andthe identity of Palermo, which shaped and were shaped by thesefestivities; and the relationship between the Spanish Crown and Sicily,Palermo and Messina, past and present, potential rebels and presentrulers. As such, the map used in the Palermitan festival of 1686 can beviewed not as a document separate from these hotly contested politicalissues, but as an instrument in the struggle for the definition of an identityfor Palermo.13 It is suggested, therefore, that such maps could play asignificant role in the formation of urban political identities.

Palermo as a case study and the festino of 1686Palermo is particularly eloquent for an investigation of the relationshipbetween urban identities and maps in this period. Between c. 1550 andc. 1650 it steadily became the political, social and religious centre of theisland, and was accordingly restructured urbanistically and architectu-rally.14 Moreover, the city was a politically charged and contested focusand symbol of Spanish imperialism within Europe, even after the revoltof Palermo in 1647 was quelled. Palermo is, therefore, paradoxical.Important during the seventeenth century, it is today a neglected city,both in terms of scholarship and urban upkeep; a colonized city, part ofthe vast Spanish empire (1412-1715), Palermo nevertheless struggledduring the seventeenth century to establish itself - in opposition to itsrival, Messina - as the capital and viceregal seat of the Kingdom of Sicily.It is precisely those paradoxes that make it such fertile ground for study.

The chief source of information about the festival of 1686 is anillustrated pamphlet, Palermo Magnifico (Palermo, 1686), written byMichele Del Giudice, canon of Palermo Cathedral (extracts from thisaccount are published in G. Isgro', Feste barocchea Palermo (Palermo,1986)). Del Giudice probably intended to provide his readers with animpression of the festival which would leave them well disposed toSpanish rule and towards the political status quo. The pamphlet could beconsulted before, after, or independently of the festival itself; we cannotassume that it describes what really happened: although it uses the pasttense, it was probably written in advance of the celebration it purports torecount.15 We cannot learn from this source either the effect of the apparati

map of Palermo, rather than to seek to explore all the arcane imagery and references ofthe other apparati used in the festival. The other apparati are therefore discussed only in sofar as they illuminate the principal altar decoration.

13 I am, of course, aware that identities are plural and contingent, but understand thisimage to be an attempt by particular elites of the city, the Senate and the cathedral clergyto create a specific identity to be embraced by leading citizens.

14 A good general account of urbanism in baroque Palermo is E. Guidoni, 'L'arte dicostruire una capitale. Istituzioni e progetti a Palermo nel Cinquecento', in P. Fossati(ed.), Storia dell'arte italiana (Turin, 1983), 265-97.

15 Jennifer Montagu has drawn attention to the difficulties of interpreting seventeenth-century festival descriptions. She provides a striking example of the discrepancies

Mapping the early modern city 151on festival participants, or the success of this festival in communicatingthe messages to the various audiences, but we can draw some conclusionsabout the effects hoped for by the Palermitan Senate and cathedral clergywho sponsored it.16 Consideration is now given to the procession, and itsmap.

The culmination of the whole procession was the apparato of the mainaltar (Figure 1). It takes the form of a highly decorated arch framing arepresentation of Palermo. The framework is composed of coupled spiralcolumns, which in turn are surmounted by an elaborate superstructureconsisting of a rainbow. The whole is capped by an imperial crown. Thefocus of attention is the scene framed by this elaborate arch in which StRosalia, in a quadriga, flies through the air, radiating light down on to thecity of Palermo. This representation of Palermo can be linked to threetraditions of representing cities: the 'ideal' map; temporary apparati; andpermanent altar-pieces.

'Ideal' maps have no specific practical purpose, in the sense of a surveyof newly discovered land, for instance. Their function is ideological.Jacopo Barberi's famous view of Venice in 1500 is a good example. In thatwoodcut, as Juergen Schulz has shown, Venice is depicted as home bothof Mercury, god of commerce, and of Neptune, god of the seas, as amagnificent and flourishing emporium.17 The 1686 apparato shares withideal maps the abstract and lofty presentation of the city and theallegorical setting, but unlike them it was ephemeral, and represented theclimax to a procession which had just wended its way through the verystreets of the city depicted. As such, it has more in common with thesecond tradition, the use in masques and festivals of temporary scenerywhich represents the city, or the very building, where the events wereheld. Examples of this tradition include several of the Stuart Courtmasques in which scenery represented real buildings, including, on oneoccasion at least, the Whitehall Banqueting House where the masquesthemselves were performed.18 Similarly, in Italy an etching of 1658 after

between seventeenth<entury accounts of processions in her discussion of the possesso ofInnocent X of 1644. Montagu points out how the engravings published in twocontemporary accounts show triumphal arches which are completely different from eachother and do not correspond either to the written descriptions, or to the image that can bederived from the payments. J. Montagu, Roman Baroque Sculpture (London, 1989), 183,187.

16 That we cannot assume homogeneity of response is obvious, but it is hard to say muchmore than that in this instance. For interesting discussions of crowd reponses andbehaviours in very different circumstances, see E.P. Thompson, "The moral economy ofthe English crowd in the eighteenth century', Past and Present, 50 (1971), 76-136 andN. Davis, The rites of violence: religious riot in sixteenth-century France', Past andPresent, 59 (1973), 51-91.

17 For Barberi's map, see Schulz, 'Jacopo de Barberi's view of Venice', 425-74.18 Time Vindicated, a masque written for performance at court in the Banqueting House on

Twelfth Night 1623, boasted a set representing the exterior of the same BanquetingHouse. S. Orgel and R. Strong, Inigo Jones: The Theatre of the Stuart Court (London and LosAngeles, 1973), vol. 1,348 and fig. 122,356-7. Similiarly, a design for Cupid's Palace foran unknown masque of c. 1619-23 bears close visual similarities to examples of Inigo

152 Urban History

G.B. Grimaldi shows a set for a firework display on the Castel Sant'An-gelo in Rome, the finale of Marco Marazzoli's La vita humana overo iltrionfo della pieta.19 This practice of making references in temporaryarchitecture to the buildings and cities in which the festivals occurredhelped to blur boundaries between the real and ideal, one of the principalfunctions of such festivities. However, the main altar-piece in the Paler-mitan festival of 1686 is unusual in presenting the participants with acityscape seen from a point of view which none of them could ever haveenjoyed - high up in the sky and out to sea - a divine point of view. Inthis respect the apparato draws also on the third tradition, that ofpermanent altar paintings.

Altar paintings showing images of the Virgin or saints above recogniz-able representations of the cities in which they were housed are notinfrequent in Counter-Reformation Italy. Ludovico Carracci's BargelliniMadonna of 1588 (an altar-piece commissioned by the Bargellini familyfor the Buoncampagni chapel in the female convent church of SS Giacomoe Filippo, known as the Convertite, in Bologna) and Annibale Carracci'sThe Virgin and Child in the Clouds, with a view of Bologna of c. 1593/94(painted for the chapel of the Palazzo Caprara, Bologna) are twoconspicuous examples.20 The apparato used in the Palermitan festivalshares the juxtaposition of the mundane and the divine, but, unlike thealtar-pieces, it is more abstract and maps the whole city. In this respect itmore closely resembles the 'ideal' map. In short, the 1686 representationof Palermo draws on traditions of representing cities found in permanentaltar paintings, festival scenery and ideal maps and, indeed, its functionoverlaps with all of these. It therefore defies neat categorization.

Mapping PalermoLet us now consider in more detail the 1686 representation of Palermo,particularly in relation to other comparable representations of the samecity and examine the extent to which it 'objectively' mapped the physicalreality of Palermo itself. It is important to recognize that the apparatopresents us not with the daily experience of being in the city, but with aconcept of the city, a cognitive map. Therefore, this aerial view empha-sizes certain qualities in particular. First, Palermo is shown as a modern

Jones's built architecture, the Prince's Lodgings at Newmarket. Ibid., vol. 1,329 and%• 41.

19 M. Weil, 'Love, monsters, movement and machines: the marvelous in theaters, festivalsand gardens' , in K. Kenseth (ed.), The Age of the Marvelous (Chicago, 1991), 163.

20 Virgins and saints are, of course, associated with Italian urban iconography from at leastthe fourteenth century. These particular examples have been selected because theyinclude unusually detailed representations of the city as well as of the saints andMadonna. For Ludovico Carracci's Bargellini Madonna, see A. Emiliani (ed.), LudovicoCarracci (Bologna, 1993), 48. For Annibale Carracci's painting of the Madonna overBologna, see J. Byam Shaw, Paintings by Old Masters at Christ Church Oxford (London,1967), 102.

Mapping the early modern city 153city with long, dear vistas and fashionable straight streets; as eminentlygovernable with sharply regulated quarters and neat city walls. Indeed,the military, defensive nature of the city is heavily emphasized: its wallsand city gates, especially the Porta Felice and the Porta Nuova, whichmark the extremities of via Toledo, and which were built to celebrate thevisit of Emperor Charles V, receive particular attention.21 No shantysettlements in the shadows of the walls disrupt the sharp divisionbetween city and campagna. Ships sailing to and from both the Cala andthe port (just outside the city walls) advertise Palermitan prosperity. Thecity is presented as a location of wealth, at once threatening andthreatened object and subject of accumulation.

Furthermore, this map shows Palermo marked with the imprint of twoinfluential Spanish viceroys: two vast streets divide the city into fourroughly equal sections and form a cross within the city fabric itself. Theancient and ragged east-west street, running from the Royal Palace to thesea, known as the Cassaro, was tidied up during the 1560s by ViceroyToledo; and the street running perpendicular to this was cut in the 1590sby Viceroy Maqueda.22 The emphasis in the 1686 apparato on viaMaqueda and via Toledo suggests not simply a modern baroque city, butproudly announces the fact that this city is quite literally stamped bySpanish rule. It is important to note that to represent Palermo with the viaMaqueda clearly visible was unusual at this date. Most seventeenth-century maps omitted the newer street altogether. In fact, the map ofPalermo published in Braun & Hogenberg's Civitates orbis terrarum (vol. 6,Cologne, 1581) (Figure 2) was repeated with few variations again andagain - for example in J. Blaeu's Theatrum dvitatum et admirandorum Italiaenee non Neapolis et Siciliae regnorum, published in Amsterdam in 1663(Figure 3).23 Even as late as 1723 the map of Palermo in F. Cluverio'sSidlia antiqua cum minoribus insulis et adiacentibus (Leyden, 1723) followsthe same type (Figure 4).24 In all these maps via Maqueda, the north-south street, is not shown.25

21 For the visit of Charles V to Sicily in 1535, see M. Fagiolo and M. Madonna, II Teatro delSole: La rifondazione di Palermo nel Cinquecento e Videa della dttd barocca (Rome, 1981), 11-24.For Porta Nuova and Porta Felice in Palermo see G. Palermo, Guida Istruttiva per Palermo ei suoi Dintorni (Palermo, 1858), 75 and 379; G. Bellafiore, La Maniera italiana in Sidlia(Palermo, 1963), 20-1,63-8; S. La Barbera Bellia, La Scultura della Maniera in Sidlia(Palermo, 1984), 104-S; M. Giuffre, Miti e Realtd dell'Urbanistica Sidliana (Palermo, 1969),30; S. Boscarino, Sidlia Barocca: Architettura e Cittd 1610-1760 (Palermo, 1986), 25,109,201.

22 For the Arab city and the Cassaro, see C. De Seta and L. Di Mauro, Palermo (Ban, 1988),19-22. For the via Maqueda and via Toledo, see ibid., 75-6. For brief accounts of theseurban interventions, see Guidoni, 'L'arte di costruire', 265-97 and H. Hills, 'PiazzaVigliena', International Dictionary of Architecture (Chicago, 1994), 598-9.

23 See S. Di Matteo, konografia storica della provinda di Palermo (Palermo, 1992), 80-1 ,93; andDe Seta and Di Mauro, Palermo, 20-4,61-4.

24 Ibid.,127.25 This was not the case in published verbal descriptions of the city. As early as 1609 a

pamphlet was published describing the cross and the square at its intersection. G.B.Maringo, Fama del'Ottangolo palermitano, Piazza Vigliena e Theatro del Sole (Palermo, 1609).

154 Urban History

Figure 2: Palermo, from Braun and Hogenbergs' Civitates orbis terrarum,vol. 6 (Cologne, 1581)

Figure 3: Palermo, from J. Blaeu, Theatrum civitatum et admirandorumItaliae nee non Neapolis et Sieiliae regnorum (Amsterdam, 1663)

Mapping the early modem city

Figure 4: Palermo, from F. Cluverio, Sicilia antiqua cum minoribus insuliset adiacentibus (Leyden, 1723)

Such inaccuracy was permissible to the market or audience for theseimages. These maps appear in expensive books representing whole seriesof cities throughout Europe or the world, and were prestigious culturalstatus symbols rather than practical maps for use. The audience wasgenerally not local, had perhaps never been to Palermo, and would not beconcerned with accuracy. Their idea of what Palermo looked likedepended more on pre-existing representations than on first-hand ac-quaintance with the city. Thus it was sufficient for rich European mapcollectors that a new map of Palermo should resemble earlier maps of thesame city with which they were acquainted; there was no need for such amap to be kept up to date, as it was never intended to help a visitor findhis way in the city.

The earliest image of Palermo with both streets occurs in Resunta de lavida, invention y milagros de S. Rosalia virgen panormitana by G. Forstman, abook celebrating the life and miracles of St Rosalia, published in Madridin 1652, which features St Rosalia in the foreground gesturing boldly fromthe Quisquine cave over the city (Figure 5). Although the city is reversedin error, this simple book illustration is arguably a more up-to-date imageof Palermo than the expensive conventional maps. The earliest map (asopposed to book illustration) to show the two streets is found inG. Merelli's 'Descrittione del regno di Sicilia e dell'Isole ad essa coadia-

156 Urban History

centi', a manuscript in the Biblioteca Reale in Turin, dated 1677 (Figure6).26 However, the first printed map to show both streets was that ofHermil e Giuseppe Ghibert, printed in 1713 in Paris - over one hundredyears after the via Maqueda had been cut.27 Paolo Amato's 1686 apparato,drawn specifically for the festival and not simply copied from a standardcity view is, therefore, unusual for its date in showing via Maqueda andthe characteristic four quarters of Palermo. In this respect, therefore, thisrepresentation of the city is accurate and unusually up to date, eventhough it is an unconventional map in an unusual context. Furthermore,the emphasis on the crossing of these two straight streets implies a gridsystem (which, in fact, Palermo utterly lacked). As such, Amato isdeliberately inserting Palermo in the pattern of maps of Spanish colonialcities in the New World, such as Mexico City (Figure T).26 In other words,Palermo is presented to the Spanish authorities in the Senate as a regularcity of the Spanish empire.

The politics of Amato's mapIn terms of individual buildings depicted in the 1686 apparato, the city isdominated, not by the cathedral, as one would have expected for areligious festival, but by the Royal Palace, seat of the Viceroy and Vice-regal court, the setting for the firework display in 1686, and the starkestsymbol of Spanish power.29 A massive, smouldering presence at thewestern edge of the city, this building dwarfs the cathedral and unmistak-ably controls the whole city. Indeed, in Sicily the Viceroy, as the Crown'srepresentative, claimed complete control over the Church through thespecial legatine status of the Monarchia Sicula.30 In short, Amato's apparatoemphasizes the subjugation of Palermo to Spain. The city is marked by26 Di Matteo, Iconografica storica, 96.27 The work of which this map formed a par t has not been identified. See Di Matteo,

Iconografica storica, 119, and De Seta and Di Mauro, Palermo, 94.28 I am indebted to Valerie Fraser for this perceptive observation. The model city with a

grid system was imposed by the Spanish authorities in the early years of conquest in theN e w World and was codified in a law introduced by Philip II in 1573. L. Benevolo, TheHistory of the City (London, 1980), 624-9.

29 For the Spanishness of the Viceroys and of their court, including in language and dress,see G.E. Di Blasi, Storia Cronologica dei Vicere Luogotenenti e Presidenti del Regno di Sicilia(Palermo, 1871), 95-256 and E. Fardella, II Cerimoniale dei signori vicere (1584-1668)(Palermo, 1976), 258-62. For the Spanishness of seventeentlvcentury Palermitan eliteculture, see H. Hills, 'Spanish influence on seventeenth-century Sicilian architecture: thechapel of the crucifix in Monreale Cathedral ' , Ricerche di Storia dell'Arte (forthcoming).

30 In effect, Crown control of the Sicilian episcopate was complete, due to the absoluteauthority of the judge of the Monarchia and his court. Sicilian bishoprics were little morethan prizes for the Spanish Crown to distribute to its faithful servants. The presence ofthe Spanish Inquisition in Sicily further subordinated the Church to the Spanish Crown.A.D. Wright, 'Relations between church and state: Catholic developments in Spanish-ruled Italy of the Counter-Reformation', History of European Ideas, 9 (1988), 386,388. O nthe Apostolic Legateship, see F. Scaduto, Stato e Chiesa nelle Due Sicilie (Palermo, 1969),vol. 1,160-3 and G. Catalano, Studi sulla legazia apostolica di Sicilia (Reggio Calabria,1973).

Mapping the early modern city 157

Figure 5: St Rosalia and Palermo, engraving by G. Forstman forResunta de la vida, invention y milagros de S. Rosalia virgen panormitana(Madrid, 1652)

Viceroys past and present; their streets and their seat dominate itphysically. A grand, prosperous, modern military city, set in a fertilebasin, favoured by a powerful patron saint, and blessed by Spanishtutelage. That is the nature of Palermo according to this representation.

Further indications of the complicity of Palermo in its subjugation toSpain occur both in the crown which surmounts the whole, supported bydutiful Palermitan eagles; and by allusions to Emperor Charles V, Habs-burg ruler who visited Palermo in 1535, and through his device to thevery idea of empire itself.31 In the apparato the columns on the left,interwoven with an inscription 'NON PLUS ULTRA', are supported bylions; between them stands a small figure representing Pallas Athene.On the right eagles support Magnanimity,33 wearing the imperial crown31 See note 21 above.32 Del Giudice, Palermo Magnifico, 87.33 Ibid., 93.

158 Urban History

Figure 6: Palermo, from G. Merelli, 'Descrittione del Regno di Sicilia edell'Isole ad essa coadiacenti' (MS, 1677)

Figure 7: Mexico City in 1628

Mapping the early modern city 159and bearing a sceptre and cornucopia; above her the inscription reads'PLUS ULTRA'. Charles V's device of two columns with the motto 'PlusOultre' referred to the fact that his empire extended further than that ofHercules; and it emphasized the vast extension into the new world of hissacred empire, making Charles the Dominus Mundi in a wider sense thanwas known to the Romans.34 This device would have been familiar atleast to the Messinese and Palermitan educated elites: Giovanni Montor-soli's Neptune Fountain of c. 1550 in the centre of Messina is prominentlyadorned with Charles V's device, as is the monument to Charles V,erected in 1631 in fashionable Piazza Bologni in central Palermo (Figure8).35 In the 1686 apparato, therefore, the inscriptions 'PLUS ULTRA' and'NON PLUS ULTRA' underscore Sicily's position as a colony of Spain.36

Such apparently craven subjugation needs explanation. Despite itsconsiderable influence, the Spanish Crown was weak in Sicily during theseventeenth century, as it was throughout its vast empire. This, the lastpolitical empire, was vulnerable to attack from the industrialized marketsopening up in North Atlantic Europe.37 Far from being able to exercise anefficient administrative machine supported by the threat of military force,Spain's inefficient and dilatory government meant that the Spanishadministration was dependent on Sicilian aristocrats for support. 8 Ad-ditionally, Spain needed Sicily for military bases in the Mediterranean.The nobility was quite happy to accommodate these needs, provided that34 For Charles V's device, see E. Rosenthal, 'Plus ultra, non plus ultra, and the columnar

device of Charles V , Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 34 (1971), 204-28 andE. Rosenthal, "The invention of the columnar device of Emperor Charles V at the Court ofBurgundy in Flanders in 1516', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 36 (1973),198-230. For the ways in which Charles V's empire succeeded in translating the phantomof the 'esperance imperiale' to the national monarchies, see the arresting discussion by F.Yates, Astraea: The Imperial Theme in the Sixteenth Century (Harmondsworth, 1977), 1-28.

35 For Montorsoli 's Neptune Fountain see La Barbera Bellia, Scultura della Maniera, 59 andE. Natoli, 'La Scultura a Messina nel secolo XVI', Quaderno dell'lstituto di Storia ArteMedioevale e Modema, 5-6 (1981-82), 35. For the monument to Charles V in PiazzaBologni, Palermo, by Scipione Li Volsi, Giacomo Cirasoli, Luigi Geraci and GiovanniTravaglia, see Palermo, Guida Istruttiva, 477-8. For the social and political significance ofPiazza Bologni, see Guidoni, 'L'arte di costruire', 283.

36 They perhaps additionally underscore Sicily's claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem (a claimthat was invigorated in Sicily at this time), since the Salamonic columns refer to theTemple of Jerusalem. For the links between spiral columns and Solomon's Temple inJerusalem, see J.B. Ward-Perkins, 'The shrine of St Peter's and its twelve spiral columns' ,Journal of Roman Studies, 42 (1952), 24 and J.A. Ramirez, 'Guarini, Fray J. Ricci and thecomplete Salamonic Order ' , Art History, 4 (1981), 24. For Sicily's claim to the Kingdom ofJersualem, see A. Mongitore, Discorso Istorico sull'Antico Titolo di Regno Concesso all'Isola diSicilia (Palermo, 1735). A full discussion of this issue is given in H. Hills, 'Marmi Mischi inPalermo' (unpublished University of London Ph.D. thesis, 1992), 120-36.

37 See H.G. Koenigsberger, The Government of Sicily under Philip II of Spain (London, 1951);H.G. Koenigsberger, The Practice of Empire (London, 1980); J. and P. Schneider, Cultureand Political Economy in Western Sicily (New York, 1976); for a more general discussion,see I. Wallerstein, The Modern World System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of theEuropean World Economy in the Sixteenth Century (New York, 1974).

38 The weaknesses of the Spanish administration throughout the seventeenth century arebrilliantly described and analysed by John Elliott. J.H. Elliott, The Count-Duke ofOlivares:The Statesman in an Age of Decline (Yale, 1986), especially 600-13.

160 Urban History

Figure 8: Detail of the device of Charles V on the statue to the Emperorin Piazza Bologni, Palermo

it retained control over other local matters and was taxed lightly, if at all.The degree to which the Crown was dependent on the aristocracy is wellillustrated by its capitulation on proposals which, though promisinggreater economic efficiency for Spain, would have damaged the nobles'interests. For example, the recommendation of Ferdinando Gonzaga,Viceroy from 1535 to 1546, that Spain should save money by replacing theseparate administration of Sicily with a joint one with Naples wasrejected. It was recognized that the long-term cost could be politicallydamaging, since Spanish rule depended heavily on a co-operative aristoc-racy, able to exercise real power on the island.39 Likewise, the recall ofseveral Viceroys - Giovanni Cardona Count of Prades (1477-78), Rai-mondo Moncada (1509-12), Giovanni de Vega (1547-57) and Giovannidella Cerda, Duke of Medinaceli - was believed in Sicily to have been theresult of their disrespect for baronial privilege.40 'With the barons you are

39 D. Mack Smith, A History of Sicily (London, 1968), 152.40 G.E. Di-Blasi, Stork Cronobgica dei Vicere Luogotenenti e Presidenti del Regno di Sicilia

(Palermo, 1871), 109-15,139-11,189-222; Mack Smith, History of Sicily, 152; 'La protestadei Messinesi al vicere Giovanni Cardona conte di Prades nel parlamento di Catania del

Mapping the early modern city 161everything; without them you are nothing', the Duke of Olivares(Viceroy, 1591-95) advised his successors.41 In the eyes of at least onenon-Palermitan observer, early seventeenth-century Palermo enjoyedrelative autonomy:in the government of the city itself the king and his ministers play a limited roleand do not meddle, but treat Palermo as a sort of Republic.42

Spain gained the support of the Sicilian barons by granting them financialand political privileges and kept them malleable by keeping themdivided. Both strategies created a dependency on the Spanish Crownamongst the Sicilian aristocracy. The great lords could compete with theViceregal crown, but not do without it altogether. Divided by rivalriesand vulnerable in times of popular disorder, the nobles were not anautonomous power, but were dependent on Spanish rule. Much of theirpower was decentralized: they had, for instance, no monopoly on thegreat offices of state. Indeed, in 1569 it was ruled that they were no longerto receive these posts, partly because of the ever more technical nature ofadministration and partly because it better suited Spanish interests if theyconcentrated on local concerns.43

Slowly but surely this elite became centred on Palermo, especially afterthe Viceroy settled there. Palermitan authorities, keen to set Palermoapart from and in a position superior to that of Messina and the rest of theisland, had jostled with Messina for supremacy since the thirteenthcentury.44 The competition focused on which city would be the seat of theViceroy and home of his court, principal source of political and economicpatronage, but extended after 1624 to the question of which city couldclaim St Rosalia as its principal patron saint.45 Rivalry intensified during

27 settembre 1478 translata per Iohan Falcone', in L. Sciascia (ed.), Delle cose di Sicilia:Testi inediti o ran (Palermo, 1980), 395-408.

41 Quoted by Mack Smith, History of Sicily, 153.42 'questo e il govemo della titta proprio in cui ha minima parte ne s'ingerisce il re, ne i suoi

ministri, ma lasciasi a Palermo una certa di Repubblica': Maiolino Bisaccioni, Historia delleguerre civili di questi ultimi tempi (Bologna, 1653), 361. Quoted by F. Benigno, 'LaQuestione della Capitale: Lotta politica e rappresentanza degli interessi nella Sicilia delSeicento', Societa e Storia, 47 (1990), 40. See also A. Romano, 'Fra assolutismo regio edautnomie locali. Note sulle consuetudini delle ritta di Siclia', Cultura ed Istutuzioni nellaSicilia Medievale e Moderna (Messina, 1992), 9-49,230-6. But for an example of the SpanishCrown's willingness to deprive Sicily in favour of other par ts of its empire, see D. Sella,Crisis and Continuity: The Economy of Spanish Lombardy in the Seventeenth Century (London,1979), 66.

43 Mack Smith, History of Sicily, 153.44 The degree to which the principal cities of Sicily were physically separate from each other

in this period should not be underestimated. Palermo w a s frequently inaccessible by roadfrom other parts of Sicily, and even by boat it was sometimes two or three days fromMessina. Mack Smith, History of Sicily, 72,222. One has only to reflect that the mainautostrada linking Palermo and Catania was not built until 1950 to appreciate how longthe tendency against centralization has persisted in Sicily.

45 Messina assumed a sort of religious leadership after the discovery of the bones of StPlacido in 1589: Benigno, 'La questione della capitale', 44. For the Messinese celebrationsof this occasion, see D.S. Alberti, Dell'Istoria della Compagnia di Gesii - La Sicilia (Palermo,

162 Urban History

the seventeenth century, especially from the 1620s on, for internal andexternal reasons.46

Palermo was the traditional capital; the parliamentary assizes wereheld there and so were most of the kingdom's tribunals. But in thesixteenth century Messina and its hinterland had enjoyed considerableeconomic development (focused especially on the silk industry) anddenser population growth than their Palermitan counterparts.47 In addi-tion, Messina was the seat of the Mint and of the archimandrite. Ingeneral, therefore, the tendency of the early modern state towardscentralization, seen elsewhere in Europe, continued to be contested inSicily throughout the seventeenth century.48 Messina had maintained anddeveloped through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries its own distinctidentity, through economic energy, trade and the strong class of mercatoreburgenses. While Messina chose to exploit its economic powers and toseek political valorization of its status as a free and privileged city,Palermo played the card of suitable capital for the kingdom, strength-ening its links with Spanish aristocrats and drawing to it local nobles.

No focus of power was immune from being sucked into the maelstromof the Messinese-Palermitan struggle, but the main focus of rivalrybetween the two cities remained the question of where the Viceroy shouldreside. Traditionally he spent half his time in Messina, a privilege thathad been bought many times over from Spain. In 1629 Messina offered amillion scudi (the equivalent of the total annual government revenue) if

1702), 702-3. For the struggles amongst the religious orders w h o feared marginalizationalong with the d ry where their power was based, see T. Fazello, Le Due Deche dell'Historiedi Sicilia (Venice, 1623 and Palermo, 1628) and F. Maurolico, Sicanicarum rerum compendo(Messina, 1562), 58-62.

46 For a broad discussion of these reasons, see R. Villari, 'La Spagna, l'ltalia e l 'assolutismo',Studi Storici - Istituto Gramsci, 4 (1977), 4-22 and F. Benigno, 'Messina e il Duca d 'Osuna:un conflitto politico nella Sicilia del Seicento', in // Govemo delta Citta: Patriziati e politiconella Sicilia moderna (Catania, 1989), 173-207.

47 For discussions of the Sicilian economy in this period, see M. Aymard, 'From feudalismto capitalism in Italy', Review, 6 (1982), 131-208; M. Aymard, 'Bilancio d 'una lunga crisifinanziaria', Rivista Storica Italiana, 84 (1972), 988ff.; J. Schneider and P. Schneider, Cultureand Political Economy in Western Sicily (New York and London, 1976), 27-32; M. Aymard,'II commercio dei grani nella Sicilia del '500', Archivio stoico per la Sicilia orientale, LXXII(1976), 7-40; A. Spagnoletti, 'Colloquio internazionale su "Potere e elites" nella Spagna enell'Italia spagnola nei secoli X V - X W , Societa e Storia, 17 (1982), 17,735-6; T. Davies,'Changes in the structure of the wheat t rade in seventeenth-century Sicily and thebuilding of new villages', Journal of European Economic History, 12 (1983) 371-405; P.Burke, 'Southern Italy in the 1590s: hard times or crisis?', in P. Clark (ed.), The EuropeanCrisis of the 1590s: Essays in Comparative History (London, 1985), 177,184-5; T. Davies,'Village-building in Sicily: an aristocratic remedy for the crisis of the 1590s', in Clark,European Crisis of the 1590s, especially 191ff.; C M . Cipolla, T h e decline of Italy: the caseof a fully matured economy', Eonomic History Review, ser. 2 ,5 (1952), 178-85; for thelonger-term structural causes of economic problems in Sicily, see S.R. Epstein, An Islandfor Itself: Economic Development and Social Change in Late Medieval Sicily (Cambridge, 1992).

48 Judges of the Gran Corte, for instance, represented distinctly Palermo, Messina, Cataniaand the rest of the Kingdom. Benigno, 'La questione della capitale', 42-3. For otherMessinese privileges during the seventeenth century, see ibid., 44.

49 Ibid., 34.

Mapping the early modern city 163Spain would rule Sicily as two separate entities, with capitals at Messinaand Palermo with their own Viceroys.50 This offer was resisted byinfluential Palermitans;51 and it was rejected by the Spanish Crownbecause it simply could not afford the cost of maintaining two courts, andbecause a divided baronage, easily nudged into internal conflicts, wasmore readily managed than a secure and settled one.52

However, the Viceregency settled increasingly in Palermo.53 Thebalance was tipped partly as a result of Spanish factions inside andoutside of Sicily.54 Economic advantages also worked in Palermo'sfavour. The increase in the price of grain was greater than that of silk,giving the edge to western Sicily.55 Rich Messinesi tended to follow thecourt and adopt residence in Palermo. Lawyers and shipbuilders foundeconomic advantage in being close to the Palermitan courts and arsenal;and as parliament and the parliamentary Deputation more and morerepresented the interests of western Sicily at the expense of the east, so itbecame expedient to move to the west. After the Messinese rebellion in1674, the Spanish Crown punished Messina by removing the Viceregalcourt and all its patronage and privileges permanently to Palermo.57

Routine expenditure of the Viceregal court was over 100,000 scudi a yearand swift access to the main source of patronage and favour wasincreasingly available only there.58 Thus by 1686 Spanish government in

50 Mack Smith, History of Sicily, 204.51 Benigno, 'La questione della capitate', 59-60.52 E. Alberi (ed.), Relazioni degli ambasciatori veneti al Senate, s. II, vol. V (Florence, 1853), 476.53 The more democratic nature of Messinese government was probably never as attractive

to the Spanish monarchy as its more subservient 'spagnola ' Palermitan counterpart.Messinese defence of their economic interests rarely found favour with the Spanish,especially after the clash with Osuna over the tax on silk in 1612. But the most salientdifference in their administrations concerned jurisdiction. In Palermo juridicalappointments were left to the Viceroy, while in Messina they were elected. For this andother civic differences which contributed to the independence of Messina from theSpanish Crown, see Benigno, 'La questione della capitale', 32-8.

M See F. Benigno, All'ombra del Re: Ministri e lotta politica nella Spagna del Seicento (Venice,1992), 118-45,139ff. For the reign of Philip III in allowing factions and favourites greatersway both in the metropolis and in the colony, see P. Williams, 'El reinado de Felipe ID',in Historia general de Esparto y America: La crisis de la hegemonia espanola. Siglo XVII, vol. 8(Madrid, 1986), 419-43.

55 Aymard, 'II commercio dei grani' , 26; Benigno, 'La questione della capitate', 44-5.56 Mack Smith, History of Sicily, 204. The fact that the Viceroy settled in Palermo was of key

importance in determining Palermitan advantage. For example, wheat prices wereratified by the Viceroy, see Aymard, 'D commercio dei grani ' , 24.

57 The Messinese rebellion differed markedly in character from the revolt in Palermo in1647. In Messina the rebellion was organized not by the desperately poor facing famine,as had been the case in Palermo, but by the rich trying to defend their privileges fromSpanish rule, from Palermo and from threat to the monopoly on silk exports. A. Pocili,Delle Rivolutioni della Citta di Palermo awenute I'anno 1647 (Verona, 1648); F. Laloy, Larevolte de Messine (Paris, 1929-31); M. Petrocchi, La rivoluzione cittadina messinese del 1674(Florence, 1954); G. Giarrizzo, 'La Sicilia dal Cinquencento all'Unita d'ltalia', in G.Galasso (ed.), Stork d'ltalia: La Sicilia dal Vespro all'Unitd d'ltalia, vol. XVI (Turin, 1989)332-42.

58 Romano, Cultura ed Istituzioni, 153-75.

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Sicily had come to be centred in Palermo, despite the absence of a specificHabsburg drive towards centralization.

The presentation of Palermo in the 1686 apparato as obedient and loyal,and with a special relationship with Spain and St Rosalia - in contrast tothe proudly independent and unreliable Messina - must, therefore, beseen in the context of a weakened Spanish empire. For the Spanish rulersof Palermo the Palermitan rebellion of 1647 remained a disturbingmemory, but far more rancorous were the memories of the Messineserevolt, which had been a much more serious threat and consequently wasmore savagely suppressed. The rebellion in Palermo in 1647, led by themaestranze, artisan guilds, without noble support, was over within a year.That in Messina, on the other hand, attracted considerable support fromnobles and merchants who feared that the parliament of Palermo wouldremove their immunities to taxation and the census.59 The purpose of the1686 festival in general and of the Amato representation in particularwas, therefore, to help counter the possibility of any resurgence of anti-Spanish feeling, by praising the present happy state of Palermo, empha-sizing the benefits of Spanish rule and warning of the need to guardagainst any possibility of their loss.60

The map in contextTo develop this analysis of the altar map apparato it is important toexplore the other macchine used in the festival of which it formed theclimax. The other apparati not only provide a context for our principalsubject, but they demonstrate seventeenth-century ways, other than themap, of 'placing' a city. All the festival apparati, recorded in the engrav-ings, represent different ways of characterizing Palermo and of articu-lating its identities; they are also attempts to fix those identities to theadvantage of the Spanish Crown. Although today we find maps the mostuseful way to locate and, at least initially, to conceive of a city's topologyand character, what we see in the 1686 festival are other ways of definingand characterizing a city.

Unusually in this festival there were two triumphal cars (Figures 9 and10). The first of these, a huge golden eagle, drawn as in antique triumphsby exotic animals, was composed of two stages, of which the lower, agolden shell, was a reference to the blessed basin, or Conca d'Oro,surrounding Palermo. Above this, the eagle also represented the city;perched on this was St Rosalia herself.61 An ingenious staircase allowed59 Pocili, Delle Rivolutioni, 17-18,85-93.60 There were no corresponding celebrations emphasizing the benificence of Spanish rule in

Messina.61 The eagle was a symbol of Palermo. A. Mongitore, 'Diario Palermitano', in Di Marzo,

Diari della citta di Palermo, vol. 7,174. For a full discussion of this symbolism see Fagioloand Madonna, II Teatro del Sole, 20-21 and F. Strada, Le Glorie dell'Aquila Trionfante(Palermo, 1682), 1-11.

Mapping the early modern city 165

Figure 9: Paolo Amato, triumphal car for thefestino of St Rosalia, 1686.From M. Del Giudice, Palermo Magnifico (Palermo, 1686)

Figure 10: Paolo Amato, triumphal car for the festino of St Rosalia, 1686.From M. Del Giudice, Palermo Magnifico (Palermo, 1686)

166 Urban History

three choirs to sit in the eagle's outspread wings. At their sides silverplates bore the arms and insignia of Europe (the highest rank); Africa andAsia (in the middle); and in the third, America. Below were citiesincluding Palermo, Messina, Rome, Vienna and Madrid - all of whicheither possessed relics of St Rosalia or had specific cults of that saint.62

The emphasis on St Rosalia should be understood in relation to theburgeoning of patron saints throughout Italy in this period.63 St Rosaliawas a relatively new patron saint of Palermo, but by far the mostimportant. In 1624, after Palermitans had been battling for a year withone of the worst plagues in the history of their city, mysterious boneswere discovered in the Quisquine cave on Mount Pellegrino, and gaverise to a heated controversy. On the one hand, one group contended thatthese were the bones of St Rosalia and were a divine sign to protectPalermo, while on the other, a group, led by doctors, argued that thebones were those of animals and of no divine significance. The formergroup, spearheaded by the Jesuits, won the day; and the cult of St Rosaliarapidly grew from strength to strength.65 This festival car, then, repre-sented not just St Rosalia but Palermo in relation to other cities which hadadopted her, while positioning them within the hierarchy of the entireknown world. As such, it was a way of claiming significant internationalstatus for the city and of linking this to the cult of the saint and to Spanishrule.

The second car, hauled along by many men and followed by musi-cians, represented the Trojan Horse. Del Giudice tells us that the TrojanHorse and the famous burning of Troy would bring home to spectatorsthe many triumphs of St Rosalia.66 When the procession reached thepiazza of the Royal Palace, an idealized city which Del Giudice identifiesas Troy, a huge firework machine greeted their eyes (Figure II).67

62 In Del Giudice 's words : 'che tutte sono le p iu speciali Provincie, e Citta, o difese d a 'morbi aggressori, o presidiate co ' Palladij d i qualche reliquia, o ossequioseall ' impareggiabile gloria, e che tut te s t imano lor pregio accompagnare anco cattive delpropr io affetto il Trionfo della Palermitana Eroina': Del Giudice, Palermo Magnifico, 34.

63 See G. Galasso and C. Russo, Per la Storia Sociale e Religiosa del Mezzogiomo d'ltalia(Naples, 1980), and S.B. Gajano and L. Sebastiani (eds), Culto dei Santi, istituzioni e dassisociali in eta preindustriale (Rome, 1984).

64 C. Valentini, 'Due Episodi di Peste in Sicilia (1526-1624)', Archivio Storico Siciliano, ser. IV,X (1984), 5-32.

65 It w a s a lways vigorously suppor ted by the Jesuits, w h o involved themselvesprominent ly in the annual festino, maintaining a significant presence in the processions,a n d tirelessly p roduc ing elaborate apparati which p romoted the Society. For an earlydescription of the Jesuits ' involvement in the festino of 1625, see O. Paruta , Relatione dellefestefatte in Palermo nel MDCXXV per lo trionfo delle Gloriose Reliquie di S. Rosalia VerginePalermitana (Palermo, 1651). For a discussion of the deve lopment and g rowth of the cultof St Rosalia, see V. Petrarca, Di Santa Rosalia Vergine Palermitana (Palermo, 1988).

66 Del Giudice, Palermo Magnifico, 44.67 Since nothing has survived of this macchina a n d n o other descriptions of this fireworks

display has survived, I a m forced to rely on Del Giudice 's account. As Montagu hasnoted , ' [n]othing is harder to unders tand than the descript ion of seventeenth<enturyfireworks': Montagu , Roman Baroque Sculpture, 187.

Mapping the early modern city 167

Figure 11: Paolo Amato, macchina for the firework display during thefestival of St Rosalia, 1686. From M. Del Giudice, Palermo Magnifico(Palermo, 1686)

According to Del Giudice's account, after nightfall, men armed withburning torches crept from the horse to burn the city.68 Once the externaldefences were burned, the attack was mounted on the interior, withrockets, explosions, Catherine wheels and so on, until the whole city wasaflame. All this, Del Giudice tells us, would have 'struck true horror ineveryone's heart' had a joyous light not brightened the smoky eddiesand illuminated the huge eagle. This cunning metamorphosis, DelGiudice assures his readers, was bound to quicken appreciation for 'theRose of Paradise amongst the still glowing cinders of that infernalcitadel'.69 Through these devices claims to Palermitan importance ingeneral and to the significance of St Rosalia in particular are asserted bylocating them in the timeless and universal sphere of mythology.Undoubtedly, the image of Troy under attack would be particularlyevocative to festival participants able to remember the revolts of Palermoand of Messina, forcefully recalling the vulnerability of even apparently68 Del Giudice, Palermo Magnifico, 46.69 Ibid., 49.

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secure and ably-governed cities to attack from an enemy within. As such,the firework machine was intended to consolidate support for theSpanish regime in power.70

From the piazza of the Royal Palace, the procession made its way to thecathedral. The nave was adorned with floral motifs, to exalt the fertility ofPalermo. Beneath the nave arcades, the most famous monarchs of Sicilystood on eagles' backs, with beautiful gardens stretching behind them(Figure 12); under the last two arches were Sicily and Happiness andbetween the arcades appeared Palermitan patron saints, while on trans-parent screens in front of the windows were painted the virtues of StRosalia.72 Here, then, Palermo is located geographically, soteriologicallyand politically: St Rosalia, Spanish monarchs and the fertility and happi-ness of the city are carefully linked.73 This combination of secular rulers,local religious powers, and images of productivity and contentmentmakes clear the connection the Senate hoped leading citizens would drawbetween Spanish rule, divine power, and civic well-being and prosperity.

ConclusionThe apparato from the festino of 1686 and indeed the whole festival fromwhich it is drawn can be seen as an attempt to construct an urban identityfor Palermo. In part political, in part religious in reference, the whole isintensely local and specific. In contrast to Jacopo Barberi's generic saints -Mercury and Neptune - used to define Venice, here St Rosalia, a specificlocal patron saint, with a local history of having been wrested away fromthe rival city of Messina, is the critical protector.

The imagery of the altar apparato must be understood in the context of aweakened Spanish empire, still in the shadows of the 1647 Palermitanrevolt and of the much more serious revolt of Messina of 1674. Perhapsprompted in part by news of Messina's returning prosperity, the Spanish-dominated Palermitan Senate attempted to forge an identity for Palermowhich would appeal to the leading citizens in a city potentially easilydivided in politics and religion, provide an identity to meld disparateforces together, and encourage the transformation of symptoms of social

70 For a discussion of Troy as a po ten t topos in art, see S. McKendrick, "The Great History ofTroy: a reassessment of the deve lopment of a secular theme in late medieval art ' , Journalof the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 54 (1991), 43-82. Further research is needed intothe significance of Troy in medieval and post-medieval representations of cities.

71 Del Giudice lists the monarchs as Coun t Roger, King Roger, William the Good , Frederickn , Peter of Aragon, Ferdinand, Philip I, Charles V, Philip II, Philip m , Philip IV, Char lesII: Del Giudice, Palermo Magnifico, 121. G.C. Argan describes these figures as the'Mothers ' a n d 'Fathers ' of Sicily: G.C. Argan, 'Premessa ' , in Fagiolo and Madonna , Teatrodel Sole, 7.

72 Del Giudice, Palermo Magnifico, 97.73 Given the tremendous local and popular enthusiasm for St Rosalia, it w a s prudent for the

Spanish Crown not only to seek to identify its fortunes with this saint, bu t also to ensurethat it controlled how she was used.

Mapping the early modern city 169

Figure 12: Paolo Amato, apparati for the nave of the cathedral duringthe festival of St Rosalia, 1686. From M. Del Giudice, Palermo Magnifico(Palermo, 1686)

disquiet into manifestations of civic and religious devotion.74 The Spanishnotion of Palermo is set within a clearly imperialist frame through thereferences to Charles V's empire and to empire itself. But empire iscarefully conflated with the divine: it is not from a window of the RoyalPalace that the city of Palermo is defined, but from high up and over thesea. Thus the divine eye coincides with a Spanish imperialist view. Assuch, the map is evidence of Spain's constant vigilance over Sicily,especially over its urban elite. Such an apparato visualizes urban reality by74 There have been few attempts to interpret seventeenth-century Italian processions, but

for a useful discussion of the functions of processions in Counter-Reformation Milan, seeA. Dallaj, 'Le processioni a Milano nella Controriforma', Studi Storici, 23 (1982), 167-83.

170 Urban History

exploiting the third - divine - dimension. But it must be understood inrelation to the rest of the procession, as the culmination to other ways oflocating the city of Palermo mythologically, politically, historically andgeographically. The city is squeezed into a Spanish perspective. Historyand politics are urbanized.

We have seen how Amato's map for the festino of 1686 stands apartfrom more conventional maps of Palermo in both form and content. Itappears in a festival, on a grand scale and at the main altar of thecathedral, rather than bound in a map book. Its function as the climax to apolitico-religious festival determined the need for a more up-to-dateimage of the city than was necessary for conventional maps. Further, inhis map and in the other festival apparati Amato presents his audiencewith carefully considered representations of Palermo. Through topolo-gical, historical and mythological references they emphasize the presenceand advantages of Spanish rule in the city. The theme of the benefits ofSpanish rule is carefully interwoven with that of the cult of St Rosalia, asthe Spanish-dominated Senate seized the opportunity of the festival tolink its fortunes with those of the local patron saint in the minds of theaudience.

Only a tiny minority of the participants in the festino of 1686 wouldhave been able to decipher the apparato at the altar of the cathedral as amap of Palermo. Maps were rare and expensive, and published maps ofPalermo did not resemble this one. On the one hand, this indicates boththat only a very small elite was intended to understand fully a festival ofthis kind, and just how small was the number of leading citizens whosesupport was critical to Spanish rule. On the other hand, it represents adetermined attempt to generate something new and bold - to forge a newawareness amongst the Palermitan ruling class through the invention andprojection of a startling new vision which could change ways of thinkingabout the city and its government. The map emphatically indicates to thefew who could read it that control over the city was expressed andexercised urbanistically in the city fabric itself, and further that thisglorious concept of Palermo could not be separated from Spanish rule.

Such a representation not only marks a striking cul-de-sac in the historyof the development of cartography, but, when interpreted within thecontext of the weakened Spanish empire and of the internal politics of theisland and of Palermo, it sheds light on the relationship between forgingpolitically acceptable identities for a city and their representation in theearly modern period. The dynamic intersection between city politics andidentities and urban representations are too important in the formation ofearly modern cities for urban historians and historical geographers not tointerpret early modern maps with all the critical insight that recent arthistory has to offer.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill